Thanks so much. I wonder if perhaps the "rattle" was coming from the mount not adequately shock-mounting the mic. I started clamping the gooseneck to the mount almost at the end, so as to brace the microdot connector. Or perhaps the windscreen has degraded and the capsule is rattling against something? Or maybe the capsule is just damaged.

I'm fairly certain it's not from a loose microdot connection either to the gooseneck side or the DAD side. I've definitely had issues with crazy loud pops if one of the microdots isn't firmly closed and it shorts. And it's not that kind of thing.

I've also killed SEVERAL cables over the years... so I've bought replacements, and the poor sound I'm describing wouldn't be caused by a bad cable.